Page:Biographical and critical studies by James Thomson ("B.V.").djvu/439

 JAMES HOGG 423 published his " Forest Minstrel," which had small success ; and all that Hogg got by it was a hundred guineas from Harriet, Countess of Dalkeith, after- wards Duchess of Buccleuch, of whom and her hus- band, Charles, the fourth duke, we learn so much in the " Life of Scott." Our daunted rustic thereupon resolved to educate the benighted society of the capital in the belles leltres, morals, and criticism ! In September, 1810, he began, and actually continued for a year, the Spy, a weekly journal with this modest intent, with some casual assistance from others, but the greater part written by himself; and, stranger still, the paper paid its expenses, until certain indecorums set all the literary ladies against it and shocked off many subscribers. During this time he was supported by an old Ettrick friend, then a thriving hat manufac- turer — "a man of cultivated mind and generous dis- position," says Lockhart ; " a friend of my father's, a man of good judgment, and refined and elegant pur- suits," says Wilson's daughter in the " Memoir " — Mr. John Grieve, who had firm faith in the genius of Hogg as well as great delight in his company, who kept him in his own house the first six months, and whose partner, a Mr. Scott, became as firmly attached as himself to the simple poet. " They suffered me to want for nothing, either in money or clothes ; I did not even need to ask these. Mr. Grieve was always the first to notice my wants, and prevent them. In short, they would not suffer me to be obliged to any- one but themselves for the value of a farthing ; and without this support I could never have fought my way in Edinbro'. I was fairly starved into it, and if it had not been for Messrs. Grieve and Scott, would,.